The story of the miraculous patronage of St. Dimitry of Rostov

My parents, my father a Saxon nobleman and my mother a native of St. Petersburg, were zealous Catholics. A year after their wedding, on their father’s business, they had to go to the Smolensk province, where I was born on October 13, 1817, under the following extraordinary circumstance, which was very important in my life: My mother’s birth was so difficult that the midwife and even the obstetrician, having lost all hope of a more natural resolution, found the only way to save my mother’s life was to take me out piece by piece!... My mother did not dare to make this sacrifice; Meanwhile, her strength was so exhausted from prolonged torment that all aids were useless: she was in a dying state. At the most critical moment, when it seemed that she was leaving, my father, despairing of saving two dear lives, ran into the next room and fell on his knees before the image of St. Demetrius of Rostov, which was on the wall, not in the form of an icon, but in the form of a portrait, shedding burning tears, said: “If you are truly a holy saint of God, then help me and save my wife and the child being born”!... Soon Then the old woman who was with my mother entered my father’s room, joyfully exclaiming: “Ivan Vasilyevich! God has given you a son! This wonderful event delighted my father; He thanked with all his heart the great wonderworker Saint Demetrius for the help he provided, and until the end of his life he remained a zealous admirer of Him. Despite this, I was not named Dmitry, but Alexander, in honor of the then reigning sovereign Alexander II. It must be assumed that this is why I was not named Demetrius, because in the Catholic calendar there is no saint named Demetrius. The certainty of the miraculous help of St. Demetrius was so clear that my father, despite his extreme zeal for Catholicism, entrusted me to the patronage of St. Demetrius and subsequently blessed me with an icon of him, painted, but specially ordered, from the very similar image of him. Born with the miraculous assistance of Saint Demetrius and constantly taught by my father to have faith in him and to resort to prayer, I realized that nothing else could fully express my faith in his power, and gratitude for all his mercies to me, which began from the day of my birth, as soon as by accepting Orthodoxy precisely for cancer, which preserves His multi-healing holy relics. But dependence on my family and various other circumstances kept me from fulfilling my secret spiritual vow. Having reached mature years and having gained more independence in my means of life and actions, in the mid-forties, I went with my wife to Rostov to venerate the holy relics of my venerable patron, the saint of God Demetrius. Since then, every year, with the exception of the last 12 years, I have enjoyed the consolation of praying at the shrine of the Saint; however, my vow to enter the fold of the Orthodox Church remained unfulfilled until recently. My affairs and health took such a bad turn in the last decade that I could no longer make trips to Rostov. But despite this, trusting in the help of my patron saint, I did not lose hope for the fulfillment of my vow. Finally, circumstances came that, apparently, forever deprived me of the opportunity to join the Orthodox Church, and at this critical time in my life, my heavenly patron and quick helper miraculously saved me from vow-crime and, I can say, from inevitable death. This significant event happened like this: On April 26, 1872, in the evening I felt severe chills and palpitations. The next morning, for the first time in my life, I experienced throat bleeding with unbearable shortness of breath and cough. The first doctor invited, although he reduced the bleeding somewhat, found me in a hopeless situation and did not appear again; so the next day, waiting in vain for the doctor, I was left without any medical benefits, from which the illness intensified to such an extent that those around me completely lost hope of my salvation. In the evening they invited a well-known doctor in Moscow, who, calling my illness “inflammation in the lungs,” found my recovery doubtful; Having visited me twice, he never came again. On Tuesday, May 2, V.E. Engelhardt visited me, whom my daughter met and told him about my desperate situation. Having learned that the doctors had lost all hope for my recovery, he asked my wife if she had addressed a prayer to my main patron, Saint Demetrius? and having received a negative answer, he strongly advised to immediately invite a priest to perform a prayer service to St. Demetrius. At this very time, an icon of the Iveron Mother of God was being transported past my windows: “here,” V.E. said to my wife, “the Queen of Heaven herself reminds you of herself; “Hurry up to invite Her miraculous icon to your home, serve a prayer service with the blessing of water: I firmly believe that this is the surest way to save the life of your husband.” The doctor who visited me after Mr. Engelhardt, at my request, told me frankly that I should hurry to receive Holy Communion. At this critical moment, calling upon Saint Demetrius for help, I decided to immediately convert to Orthodoxy and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ according to the rite of the Orthodox Church. On the same day, at 8 o’clock in the evening, my wish was fulfilled by the highly respected archpriest of the Church of Simeon the Stylite on Povarskaya, Alexei Ivanovich Sokolov. While performing the ceremony of joining, the throat bleeding almost did not stop; but having been worthy to receive communion of the Holy Mysteries, I suddenly felt an inexpressible relief: the bleeding finally stopped and I began to breathe freely and joyfully! The next day, with the help of my family, I could already walk. After that and May, during a prayer service before the icons of the Mother of God and St. Demetrius, without feeling either frustration or weakness, I stood on my knees throughout the service and, with all my heart, offered my gratitude to the Queen of Heaven and the great saint for the miraculous help provided to me. On the fifth day, I was already able to go with a prayer of thanks to the chapel of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Now feeling myself completely renewed in spirit and body, I make it my sacred duty throughout my life to give thanks to my heavenly patron Saint Demetrius and I pray to Him that He will soon grant me permission to venerate his holy relics.